Animal rights activists have been trying to stop the running with the bulls in Spain for some time and now, as the activity has been imported to the USA, they’re trying to stop it before it becomes a tradition.

The first ever Great Bull Run is scheduled to happen at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in California this Saturday but an animal rights group has sued to stop it from happening.

The event is a knock off from the original run in Pamplona, Spain. An expected 3,000 participants run for a quarter of a mile in a dirt road while 20 bulls stampede after them. Some people find that thrilling but the animals (who unlike the people, do not choose to be there) usually get hurt in the process.

“Our investigators have also seen that the runners will often punch or slap the bulls as they run by,” said Animal Legal Defense Fund‘s Matthew Liebman. “It’s also dangerous in that the animals can get entangled in each other and fall and break a leg.”

The event organizer, Rob Dickens, who’s making quite a bit of change at the expense of the bulls at $75 for each participant, disagrees. Dickens argues that since the bulls aren’t running in European cobblestones, they don’t trip and so far none of his animals have gotten hurt in the events he’s done across the country.

“They have horse racing out here. They have rodeos all throughout California, and in those events people are on the animals’ backs either whipping them or kicking them in the side with metal spurs,” said Dickens who added that unless the animal rights activists can prove that rodeos and horse racing are animal cruelty, the event is still happening.

I believe this is the business that was on Shark Tank a few months back. They sell “adventure” outings and Mark Cuban invested in it. Very disturbing.

Dingosbaby

Human stupidity – how is this in any way exciting or entertaining? If this is your idea of fun, I’m really glad I don’t know you.

JR Johnson

Please know that I do NOT support bullfighting including running of bulls (which they want to do in Calif.), but am only giving a view that a Spanish man who supports bullfighting gave me and it is his sincere & honest view. First, I lived in Spain for almost 2.5 years from 1981 to 1984 (when I was 11 to 14 years old) and visited Spain twice in my adulthood in 2012 (Madrid, el escorial, Segovia, Avila, Salamanca, Fatima and Lisboa-last 2 in Portugal) and in May 2014 (Madrid, el escorial, Toledo, Cordoba and Sevilla). In my 2nd trip, the tour guide explained bullfighting. The tour guide explained how he used to be against bullfighting, petitioned against it but changed his mind and he says he has no problem with bullfighting.

The tour guide said that bullfighting is a tradition going back to Ibreian times and the bull is revered for his strength. He said that the bullfighter facing the bull is a ‘titans battle’ and 1 will be killed, unless the bull is spared by indulto or pardon. He said that the bull is wild and that if within 20 minutes, the bull is not killed when he enters the ring, he is spared-of course the bull goes through picadores and in end the matador. He said that with bullfighting, the bull is killed for food. The tour guide talked about how slaughter houses where animals are injected with hormones, kept in cages and so on is worse, whereas with bullfighting, the bull is wild and free and in the end gets killed in the ring in the last under 20 minutes of his life. He said that if the bull is spared by indulto, then that bull can not be used again because rules are that a bull can only be used once. Tour guide also explained that most Spaniards under 30 years old are against bullfighting and I spoke with 2 Spanish men-27 and 23 years old) who told me that they are against bull fighting and that if people want to eat beef, they can quickly kill the bull with a bullet through the heart.

Now whether you agree or differ with the tour guide, the tour guide’s honest and sincere in his view. He thought about the topic and he supports bullfighting. He thinks bullfighting is killing for food & he believes the idea is seeing death in the ring. He explained that most people who eat chicken, pork and beef do not see death of the animal. I still think that if people want to eat beef, then take a gun and quickly kill the bull. If bullfighting is abolished in Spain, then that is fine, but I do not think people who watch bullfights are bad and bullfighters know the risks. Again, the tour guide who spoke with us sees it as killing for food.

Finally I am a vegetarian but I do not pass judgment on people who eat meat, have friends who eat meat and have hunted. I believe that it is consistent to be a vegetarian, support animal welfare, but also to have no problem with food hunting as long as hunted animal is swiftly killed. I support harshly punishing those who abuse their pets, such as I believe in harshly punishing those who take part in dog fighting. I am against poaching & believe in punishing poachers. While I would be happy if all were vegetarian, I do not go to the extreme that P.E.T.A. does. I do not pass judgment on people who eat meat, have friends who eat meat and have hunted. I have no problem with food hunting as long as the animal is swiftly and humanely killed for food and as long as there is no poaching. If an animal is suffering or is diseased, then no problem with humanely killing it. I am against sports hunting. So hunting for food provided it is humanely and swiftly killed is fine but poaching is wrong. If people want to fish, hunt pheasant, deer, ducks or rabbit for food, then that is fine as long as it is a swift kill and there no poaching. I think that my view does not contradict animal welfare.